Tasmanian bowls trio Rebecca Van Asch, Debbie Lee and Jess McMullen have taken out the 2021 Australian Triples Championships.
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Delayed several times due to COVID-19, the championships have finally gone ahead in Broadbeach and brought some strong Tasmanian results.
The Invermay team qualified for the final courtesy of a tight 17-15 win over Queensland and a slightly more comfortable 18-10 victory against South Australia.
Facing off against Western Australia's team of Lisa Featherby, Laura Mertz and Linda Warburton, the trio led at the halfway point 9-3, before holding them off for a 17-12 win.
The state almost had two sets of national champions, with the men's trio side claiming the silver medal in their competition.
Comprising of Mark Nitz, Rob McMullen and Will Coad, the side got through their first three matches undefeated with wins over Western Australia (16-11), Victoria (20-12) and South Australia (19-13).
Those victories set up a battle against Queensland's Aaron Sherriff, Barrie Lester and Nick Cahill, which would eventually see the Tasmanian trio defeated 19-12.
The triples win continued a strong vein of form for Van Asch, who almost took home the Australian Champion of Champions title earlier in the week.
Having gone through her first four matches undefeated, bettering Kathy Miller, Carla Krizanic, Chloe Stewart and Sarah James, the Invermay bowler fell just short of the title, going down to Chloe Morrison 21-19.
Van Asch was trailing 13-3 until she came back to level at 19-19 before Emerging Jackaroo Morrison calmed her nerves to win the match.
The victory meant the title went to Commonwealth and World Champion Krizanic, who became just the second two-time winner of the event.
"I'm honestly not quite sure how to feel, I'm very happy to have won but it's a weird feeling that I can't explain," she said.
"Obviously Bec is a great friend and she would've been disappointed to have lost that last game, you don't want to see others losing to win it.
"I got a bit lucky in some ways, but over the weekend I'm happy with how I played, the conditions were tricky here and I just tried so hard not to get frustrated at myself when adapting."
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